The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1887-09-03
Select Storp.
MYSTERY OF THE OCEAN STAR.

On the 22d of August, in the year 1877,
steamer named the Guide, OF about ,zoO
tons burden, was in latitude 12' north ana
in longitude 80 west. The weather during
the last twenty four hours had been strange.
The northeast trade wind had two days
earlier fined down into faint draught, and
then for spell all the breeze that the YES
sci found she made for herself. There was
a long swell from the westward, which
came along in slopes of liquid violet, SO
polished that the glory of the sunshine
Slipped from one deeply dark blue brow to
another, as though indeed it were sub
stantial gushing Of fiery gold sliding over
the heads of rolling hills Of glass. The
oddness of the weather lay in peculiar, ap-
pearances of snow-white vapor low down
upon the sea. The atmosphere was bril-
liantly clear, the sky hard pale blue,
Frightening into the needle-like scintlllations
of new tin as it swept out of bald brassy
dye round about the sun to the sheer white
dazzle of the luminary; and where the line
of the horizon was VIZ le the rim Of the
waving circle was as vp and defined as
tinted crystal against airy softness of
the heavens. Nevert these fog banks
hung about the deep inany directions,
some curved like greag 'pinions, some in
rolls, low-lying, like to the folds of dark
smoke which linger on the waters of the
English Channel in the hush of summers
day, some like vast sheets of satin, shot
with the lustrous colorings you notice in
cobwebs or the inside of oyster shells.
Whenever the steamer swept into one of
them her quarterback, and the white boats
amidships, and the glass of her skyEghts
and all the brass work about her ahaft her
funnel, would be in splendor, while forward
she had disappeared as completely as1f she
had been sawn in twain. Then perhaps
for the space of twenty minutes she would
be !n a sort of eclipse, a deeper silence upon
the white air, as though the steam like
smother held stiffness of its own, her
forecastle scarce visible from the bridge,
the smoke from her funnel following like
shadow of thunder cloud in the glistening
void; and regularly as she drove into these
spacious, seemingly gly motionless bodies, the
blasts of her steam horn fled ahead like
wells startled out of her sentence by terror
of the swift transformations of the splendor
of the tropical day into the moon-like
blindness Of the fog: For certainly it was
impossible to know but that in one or al-
other of the banks ship lay stagnatedi
and, though the engines were never slowed,
the ears upon the bridge were held strained
until the steamer had leaped on sudden
out of the white twilight into the golden
day again.
1t was about eleven o'clock in the fore
noon; the whole length Of the Guide had
baFely steamed opt clear from one of the
largest of the low clouds, when the chief
officer sighted a sail four points on the port
bow. She lay some five miles distant, in
wide and shining channel betwixt two
great bodies of vapor, and resembled a
piece of ivory work in the searching light.
The mate directed the captains attention
to her.
ayes, sir; and I hope if there are others
about they'll be as easy to see" He
brought glass from the chart house and
levelled it. He worked away foF soMe
time without speaking, and then, handing
the telescope to the chief mate, he said =
"Mr. Williams, there's something wrong
with that vessel"
Indeed, it scarcely needed sailors eye
to suspect something amiss. She was q
small bark, apparently between $50 and
400 tons; she had a main skysail mast, and
all her spars were aloft, and everything
right in that way; but the appearance Of
her canvas suggested disorder and confusion
Halliards fore and aft seemed to have been
let go on q sudden, and nothing else done,
Upper topsail, topgallant-in short, all yards
which Travelled were down, but no sail was
clewed up. The foresails, the lower top
sails, mainsail and spanker were set, but
etaygails and iibs, most of them, lay half
up and down the stays they belonged to-
the yards were braced forward on the st9r
board tack, These features the glass Fen
dered easily distinguishable.
"Now, what on earth can that muddle
signify?" exclaimed the captain, with his
face full of curiosity. "You'd imagine
there was heavy squall coming down upon
her; that her skipper had sung out to lei
go everything, and that the crew, after
doing SO, had gone to dinner. See any
thing like a color flying, Mr. Williams p
The mate looked and answered no.
nAppeaes to ae Ike q mutiRy, siF," ht
continued. ''0r if it isn't that, then i'll
be sickness. Hold chock-a-block witt
green coffee, perhaps, and the foksle full
of fever Or suppose you reckon its blind
ness, sir. I've heard of such thing as
WHOLE ships company losing their sight.
swell, let's go a1l haye look at her,
said the captain. 3No use specializing on
abjepis at sea, If there'd been littl,
more shifting ae courses there'd be fewel
marine wonders, | allow" He spoke tt
the hclmsman, and the steamers head was
put for the bark.
She was rolling to the run of the swell
and the swinging Of the canvas flung ;
hurry of shadows over her. The quie
vaporous shapes on either hand, like islandi
clad in mist, with the wide dark blue chan
mel between them upon WHICH the fabric
made dainty by distance, swayed the silvel
buttons Of her trucks in a delicate lining
as you might have thought, of the AZURE
canvas above, made the picture fine one
The heave of the water was without
wrinkle, and the eye sought the whole cir
eHmferepce Of the horizon in vain for th'
blurr Of catspaw. As she Wag approached
points which distance had subdued or hiddeE
stole opt upon the naked sight; such as tha
, she was painted green with narrow whit
band running the length Of her; that SD,
had white fgurehead and an elliptioa
stern, after the mould Of the Aberdeen
clippers; that she was metalled high will
new sheathing, which, to each sway of tn
! swell, flashed out a wet coppery light tina
was like the momentary glance of bean
of the setting sun upon the translucenc.,
under the bends
'There's nothing wanting IN her that
can see,' said the Captain, talking with hi
eye at the glass aMasthead those yard
and trim them, and she'd be as pretty
: little ship as ever ! recollect seeing. Wha
can be her peoples object in having her j
that condition? Certainly not rope
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